Pressing a barbell overhead is one of the oldest exercises in the gym.

It might well have been the first exercise invented after the first barbell was discovered.

Since it is performed while standing with the bar in the hands,

after the bar is cleaned from the ground to the shoulders or taken from the rack at shoulder height,

the entire body is involved in the exercise. From the floor to the hands, the job of pressing

the bar overhead is shared by all the muscles in the body. But for some bizarre reason,

the press has acquired the entirely undeserved reputation as a

dangerous exercise for the shoulders. Due to a poor understanding of the mechanics of the movement,

doctors and especially physical therapists commonly advise against performing this perfectly natural and perfectly safe exercise.

The alleged problem is an injury known as shoulder impingement, and nothing, nothing could be further from the truth.

The correctly performed press, of course incorrectly performed exercises don't count, the correctly performed press is not only perfectly safe for the shoulders,

but more importantly, the press is the best exercise for keeping shoulders strong and injury free.

Here's why.

Impingement means the entrapment or pinching of the soft tissue between the bones in the area of a joint.

Shoulder impingement occurs when the rotator cuff tendons get squeezed between the bones that comprise the shoulder joint,

the head of the humorous, the distal end of the collar bone,

and the distal end of the scapula.

The AC joint, the acromeio-clavicular joint,

formed by the bony knobs at the end of the shoulder blade,

the acromion process, and the coracoid process,

and the end of the collar bone,

which is called the clavicle, of course.

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